Teen Wolf Recap: Galvanize

If there’s one thing I’m confident about when it comes to Teen Wolf, it’s that it really gels when it finds inter-character dynamics that work and then plays with that for all it’s worth. This is, in large part, probably why I liked this week’s “Galvanize” as much as I did. It might also have been the escalation of story for a new character who’s quickly becoming one of my favorites, the discovery of a new power involving electricity, and the fact that this episode was actually pretty good at balancing the constant forward momentum of this week’s driving thrill. All in all, it was a pretty solid episode of Teen Wolf, and it left me intrigued and rearing for what’s next.

The episode opens at the Beacon Hills hospital — this place has gotten a lot more play since the day they realized Melissa McCall was one of this show’s MVPs — wherein the FBI and the Sheriff’s Department are arguing over whether giving a murdery guy from the local jail proper medical treatment is something they can pass on. Because she’s a recurring character on a supernatural show, the responsibility of a chunk of that treatment falls to Mama Melissa McCall. I just hope this Murdery Dude (Editorial Note from Rebecca, who can’t not freak out because DOUG JONES) knows that if he hurts her both I and her devoted son will beat his face off. “He’s a former electrical engineer who decided to walk onto a school bus with a shrapnel bomb. He left four students dead, and a fifth with no legs.” Oh, Scott’s Dad, you bring such joy wherever you go!

Murdery Guy has a tendency of leaning too close to people’s faces, but apparently that’s the least of what we should be concerned about. Because apparently he killed those kids because “[he] saw their eyes, and their eyes were glowing,” which almost definitely means supernaturals, which almost definitely means this unbalanced hunter guy is going to find himself a way to escape from this hospital and wreak some havoc in 5, 4, 3, 2… Oh, and he’s on the operating table and spewing flies out of an open body cavity. And oh look, he’s stabbed the doctor and is amscraying right outta there, stealing an ambulance and heading towards the school. Right on time.

One of the results of a murder dude escaping from the hospital is that we get a little more action of Lydia As Banshee. She’s still hooking up with Aiden, which is disappointing given that there is no love between Aiden and I whilst Lydia is my forever girl. But I’ll breeze right by that for now because I will take every moment of banshee exploration that I can get, you guys. And even though this episode wasn’t exactly full of exposition on the matter, it did deal again with Lydia’s relationship to her powers and her desire to tap into and learn more about them.

We also get to see a bit of Stiles and Scott doing actual teenagery things for once instead of trying to save someone’s life! It’s almost like this was a teen show once! It is apparently Mischief Night, wherein every Halloween everyone messes with Coach. Everyone, that is, except Greenberg, who gave the Coach a #1 Coach mug which Coach immediately destroyed, because the world is not kind to Greenberg.

The Alpha Twins show up in the Beacon Hills High parking lot and ask Scott to be their new alpha because being a leader was just too much. This moment’s got two ups to it: 1) We’re apparently acknowledging now that these two are in no way high school freshman, and 2) Isaac responds to their request to join the pack with a big ol’ “HEY REMEMBER WHEN YOU GUYS MURDERED OUR FRIEND BOYD,” to which I say “YES THANK YOU, ISAAC.” I am very grateful for Isaac’s new personality trait of casually reminding people of all the atrocities that have occurred. Nevertheless, the Alpha Twins are rather determined to find their way back into a pack, and so they head back to the high school to try to slowly win over the people whose friend they helped murder.

Another thing that was said this episode that was very accurate, this time by Stiles: “C’mon, Scott, you’re an alpha, you’re the apex predator. Everyone wants you, you’re like the hot girl that every guy wants.” I wouldn’t care about this line except for the fact that everyone in this show wants Scott to love them so badly, from Stiles and Isaac, to Allison, to Kira, to poor old Derek who probably spends every second he isn’t tied to something shirtless taking sad jogs in the woods and wondering what fundamental flaw he has that made Scott not want to join his pack. “I’m the hot girl,” said Scott, contemplating this. “Yes you are,” replied Isaac, launching a thousand fan fictions.

Of course, nothing gold can last forever, and they’ve got a murdery man to take care of. And of course the bulk of the law enforcement officials are leaving the school in the hands of the teenagers, so we can expect some good Scoobie action while they try not to let Murdery Guy murder once again. And so Allison does some beastiary searching, the Alpha Twins investigate the basement (they find Danny making out with a boy who is not Ethan, and all I’ve got to say is geddit), and Lydia and Stiles figure out that Murdery Guy’s plan is to blow up the school using the boiler room.

Stiles and Lydia pull the fire alarm to get everyone out of the school, and even though Stiles gets a week of detention it’s OK because we get a sweet scene of Stiles helping Lydia feel less insecure in the ability of her bansheeness to help out. These two really are sweet when he’s not obsessing over her like he did up to the end of season two. The conscious departure from that obsession is really why one of the highlights of both 3a and 3b has been watching them run around solving things together. They also seem to have a nice balance going on: She reassured Stiles in his moment of emotional crisis last week; now it’s her turn to be reassured.

Stiles and Lydia head back to the school after their little bonding sesh to figure out some of the mystery stuff, and what they learn is this: Murdery Guy (whose real name is Barrow, but whom I cannot stop referring to as Murdery Guy, because that is all his appearance and overall demeanor says to me) is after Kira. This leads to Scott getting hit over the head with a crowbar, which is something I am never a fan of because no one should harm Scott McCall ever.

Speaking of the Yakimuras, we get to see another example of how great this show can be with parent-child relationships through Kira and her her father: Kira’s hanging out in Mr. Yakimura’s classroom instead of socializing with her peers (Kira: “The only one who has shown any interest in me is a coyote.” Mr. Yukimura: “Maybe you can date the coyote?”) and so Mr. Yakimura makes a point to invite Scott over for dinner that night because even he can see those two are barely capable of looking at each other without mooneyes.

The best part of the Yakimura storyline this episode, though? We’re quickly learning a lot more about their family (Mr. Yakimura is actually Korean and not Japanese, but he took his Japanese wife’s name when they were married because she was the last surviving member of her family), and I thiiink I’m gonna call it and officially say that Kira is there for more than to be Scott’s new love interest. Like, sure, they’ve obviously got huge adorable crushes on each other, but that was also the case with Allison’s introduction, and like the Argents this family seems to fit preeeeetty well within the framework of the Beacon Hills supernatural world. In fact, turns out Kira’s some sort of electricity creature, or something. An electricity bender? And now Scott knows about it! And so do we! Any which way the electricity bending cookie crumbles I am all in for next week.

Other things that happened that we should talk about:

Here are two stories I didn’t cover up there: Derek was elsewhere throughout this all sewing Peter’s finger back on without anesthetic, as ya do. The container Peter lost said finger for holds the talons of Derek’s mom Talia, by the way, and they’re gonna use it for some kind of werewolf seance. I mainly ignored this above because I have taken to the unfortunate habit of zoning out whenever Peter’s talking until, like, Lydia revenge-murders him (just a thought), so I missed some of the set-up for this last episode. My bad!

This episode we also get to see a bit more of the dynamic between Allison and Isaac, which is cute and full of jabs and generally works way better than I expected it to, I think at least partially because the show doesn’t seem to be pushing it. I especially like that part of their dynamic is this competitive drive to one-up each other, which means that a rejected kiss culminates in the two of them standing shirtless in Allison’s room, at which point Papa Argent bursts in and yells “ANOTHER WEREWOLF?” Which, well, fair.

This episode also had a couple really nice family moments, specifically revolving around surnames: After learning that Kira’s dad took Kira’s mom’s name, he calls up his mom and asks why she never changed her name back to Delgado after the obviously painful divorce from Scott’s dad. “Because it’s your name, too, honey,” she says, and everything is sweet and nice in that moment and I’m not thinking about when that Murdery Guy stapled himself shut at all.

A couple of other thoughts:

This show continues to be a giant commercial for phones.

One of my friends described Murdery Guy/Barrow thusly: “This guy is the f***ing creepy version of Mr. Crocker from The Fairly OddParents.” Fair.

Isaac got attacked by the things that came out of the Nemeton, oh no! Someone should probably rescue him.

What did you all think of the episode? Who are those Nemeton dudes? What is Kira, and when will she teach me how to make Scott McCall crush on me like I crush on him? How did Isaac get away with not wearing a scarf this episode? Do you think the Stiles/Lydia dynamic is more Ginny/Harry or Snape/Lily in the long-run, and do you think they should a) make out all the time and maybe date, b) stay platonic forever, or c) none/all of the above? I am honestly fine with any of those options, so I am interested in hearing your takes on these two.

And have any of you ever stuffed an entire wad of wasabi in your mouth à la Scott this episode? If so, are you OK?